Duane Thomas Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 I have made the mistake of accepting, twice now, the offers to upgrade my iTunes to the latest version, even though I was perfectly happy with the older version. I'm finding I really hate the Ping icon that now shows up every time you click on a song title, also on the very latest version (downloaded just a few minutes ago) when I autosize the columns within a file it truncates at least one of the song titles instead of autosizing to the actual length of the longest song title. Is there any way to go back to an earlier version of iTunes, I think 9.2.1 would work well for me, without possibly losing all my songs? BTW, I have found on the 'net, and actually downloaded, 9.2.1 but the version that is currently running my iTunes is still 10.whatever. So apparently simply downloading the older version does not automatically install it to my iTunes library. My worry is that if I somehow managed to manually remove 10.whatever I would also lose all my songs rather than simply switching over to 9.2.1. This, of course, would be a tragedy. I just want to get rid of 10.whatever, switch over to 9.2.1 and retain all my songs. BTW, please bear in mind I have little in the way of real computer skills, so a step-step-step process, rather than "You just need to [fill in computer skill I have absolutely no idea how to accomplish]" would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Vigilante Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Check out this link: http://appletoolbox.com/2010/09/how-to-downgrade-itunes-10-to-itunes-9-2-1/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted March 9, 2012 Author Share Posted March 9, 2012 Well that just sounds extremely complex and way beyond my capabilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Vigilante Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Perhaps you have a computer-literate friend who could assist you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acekc Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 The problem is that when Apple added Ping and all that other lovely stuff, they changed the format of the library file. When you upgraded to 10 it automatically changed the format of your 9.2 library to make it compatible with 10, which made it incompatible with 9.2. That means that you can't just point 9.2 at your 10 library because it won't understand it anymore. The procedure linked earlier uses an old copy of your library file (one taken before 10 changed the format) created by the system. If that fails then it recreates your library file using a special backup file that iTunes creates alongside the library file itself. I work with computers for a living and have gone through this process and it's not much fun. I'm guessing that iTunes 9.2 created a new blank library file when you ran it. You can always try just finding the folder where your music files are and dragging and dropping that folder into the iTunes window. It should import all your music into the new library though you may lose some settings. It's a low-risk operation though - it shouldn't do anything to your iTunes 10 setup, so if you try it and too many things are missing then you can go back to 10. If it's good enough you can stick with 9.2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 (edited) I have not tried this, but had to do something similar when I got a new computer. Get an external drive and copy all of your tunes to it just in case (a good idea regardless). Completely uninstall iTunes. Install the old version of iTunes. Point it to your music and let it rebuild the library. Before you do this, check, check, check... Apple can do some really odd things and they may have done something that would keep this from working. Edited March 9, 2012 by Graham Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Rod Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 You realize you can go into Preferences and disable Ping, don't you? The Ping icons still appear in places but they are a lot less annoying. Trying to stay downrev'd is a loosing proposition in my opinion. Eventually there will be some functionality issue or bug that will prop up and if you upgrade to a newer device you will need the new version to manage it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 Completely uninstall iTunes. Install the old version of iTunes. Point it to your music and let it rebuild the library. Okay, on what part of this was I not clear? BTW, please bear in mind I have little in the way of real computer skills, so a step-step-step process, rather than "You just need to [fill in computer skill I have absolutely no idea how to accomplish]" would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 You realize you can go into Preferences and disable Ping, don't you? I did not. Just did that. Thanks. Any workaround for the truncated song titles? Then I'd really be a happy camper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 You realize you can go into Preferences and disable Ping, don't you? I did not. Just did that. Thanks. Any workaround for the truncated song titles? Then I'd really be a happy camper. Move the mouse up to the column headers and drag left or right to adjust the column width. (The mouse arrow turns into a vertical line with small horizontal arrows extending left and right. Press and drag to suit.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 That part I already knew. I should have phrased my question more clearly. Is there a way to get the Auto Size All Columns feature to work as it should? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Almost every windows program can be uninstalled or removed the same way. Control Panel / Add or Remove Programs. Click on the program and click the Remove button. That should completely remove the program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 The question is, would that also remove my songs? I don't just want to remove 10-whatever, I want to go back to 9.2.1 and keep all my songs in the process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 (edited) That part I already knew. I should have phrased my question more clearly. Is there a way to get the Auto Size All Columns feature to work as it should? I don't use that feature, as I've got some pretty long titles and artist names (you get that in classical music). But I tried it and it worked fine on iTunes 10.6. Then I had to resize my columns back to what I wanted! Edited March 11, 2012 by wgnoyes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 He's not going to whack your actual song files, but you may lose all your meta data, that is, your play counts, star ratings, playlists, smart playlists, downloaded album covers, last played date and times, etc. That being said, you should always make a backup of your iTunes Media folder before doing anything like this. Backleveling something like this is just not a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 The question is, would that also remove my songs? I don't just want to remove 10-whatever, I want to go back to 9.2.1 and keep all my songs in the process. No, it won't remove the songs. Or at least it shouldn't, but that's why it's always a good idea to backup your music folder. iTunes is just a program to catalog and manage your music. The music belongs to you and can be used with any player and any manager. If you decide to ditch your Apple player and get a Creative player, you have to be able to remove iTunes and install the Creative manager. You should also be able to copy your music to a different computer with a different manager and have it work. What you loose by removing iTunes are all the things that are proprietary to iTunes. Things like your playlists and any settings you've made any notes, etc etc. Generally speaking, once you upgrade a piece of software, it's often more bother to go back to a previous version that to just live with what you don't like in the new version. And accept the fact that the software companies have you by the short and fuzzies. It's their bat and ball and you either play the game by their rules or you don't play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 Guys, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but really, all this "You need to [blank]" stuff isn't helping me. I need "1. Click on this. 2. Click on that. 3. Etc." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Guys, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but really, all this "You need to [blank]" stuff isn't helping me. I need "1. Click on this. 2. Click on that. 3. Etc." I understand. I've used computers as a part of my job since 1972 and have owned a computer since 1983 and have used a computer as a primary source of income since 1990 and I can tell you that every year I get more frustrated with how complicated software engineers are making things. Your best bet is to simply make that one change to turn Ping off and live with the upgrade. Apple will force you into making it sooner or later anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 How would they do that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 How would they do that? Basically, by lack of support..... So -- iTunes continues to work for you as long as your computer does. Upgrade the computer -- upgrade iTunes..... Or -- security holes, when they stop supporting that version.... Potentially lack of the iTunes store, or an inability to sync a newer iPod with an ancient version of iTunes. A lot of this hasn't happened, maybe won't happen..... But they're not releasing updates just to mess with you..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 Yes, they ARE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 Yes, they ARE. Luddite...... You've been doing this for a decade at least, hanging out here via computer. Might be time to embrace the technology, and learn to work with it...... I don't think we're bringing back LPs just for you...... :devil: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 But they're not releasing updates just to mess with you..... You obviously haven't looked at Windows 8. Watch this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 It's also a support issue. It's perfectly valid for a software vendor to take the attitude of "Look, you're so far back leveled in versions of your 'x' software that we just can't afford to care about you anymore". Otherwise microsoft would still have to be supporting windows 95 and maybe even windows 3.1 users. Apple did the same thing with OS X Lion last summer, dropping support (and even the ability) to run older powerpc applications under the rosetta emulator on intel machines. Apple is a bit more harsh about it and here they just said "Look, you don't need to be running that old stuff anymore, time to come fully into the intel platform." But apple IS still supporting (for now) the previous Snow Leopard operating system with ongoing software updates. THAT could change later this summer with OS X Mountain Lion. Bottom line: you don't like ping. Good. Turn it off. As to autosize columns, that is NOT an automatic dynamically updating feature. If you right-click on your headers and select "autosize" there, he does it, but only once. You then go and add something new into iTunes with an even longer title and you'll have to autosize again. That's by design. My advice as one iTunes user to another, just manually resize the song title column to suit and forget about trying to back level back to 9.x. You really don't need to. Plus if you actually did go back that far, you wouldn't be able to synch to any iPod touch or iPhone running iOS 4.2 or later(1), and we're up to 5.1 on those devices now. (1) - Wikipedia, "iTunes Version History" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 Check out this link: http://appletoolbox.com/2010/09/how-to-downgrade-itunes-10-to-itunes-9-2-1/ And I just read that link, which itself links to something else. No offense, but for a level of user who thought he could just download an old 9.2.1 and it would automatically replace 10.x, you don't need to be trying that. >>I<< wouldn't try that. Whatever 10.x version you're on, even if you hate it, sorry, you're there. Live with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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